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Re-release: When a Mystery isn't the Right Fit
168 Plays3 months ago
This episode was originally released on September 5, 2023.
Have you ever not finished reading a mystery? Brook and Sarah discuss the reasons why they have put a book down before finishing it and share ideas on what to do when a book just isn’t right for you (right now).
Discussed
“Guilt Complex: Why Leaving a Book Half-Read Is So Hard” Wall Street Journal (June 5, 2013) Matthew Willhelm
“You Really Don’t Have to Finish Every Book You Start” Tor.com (October 28, 2021) Molly Templeton
The Alienist (1994) Caleb Carr
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Transcript
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Transcript
Announcing a Break and Plans
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi, it's Sarah. Brooke and I are taking a short break from recording new episodes to catch up on our reading lists and plan for the next season of Clued in Mystery. While we're off, we are re-releasing a few of our favourite episodes.
Re-releasing Favorite Episodes
00:00:12
Speaker
We hope you enjoy. it
00:00:24
Speaker
Welcome to Clued in Mystery. I'm Sarah. And I'm Brooke, and we both love mystery. Hi, Brooke.
Guilt of Not Finishing Books
00:00:33
Speaker
Hi, Sarah. How are you doing today? I'm doing well. How about you? Wonderful. It's good to talk to you again, but I have a question for you. Do you ever feel guilty for not finishing a book? I do. Yes. There was a time when I finished every book I started. h But now I will put down a book if if it's not working for me. What about you?
Personality and Book Finishing
00:00:58
Speaker
Yeah, I definitely have that angst as well if i if I'm not going to finish a book. And in a Wall Street Journal article, clinical psychologist, Matthew Wilhelm suggests that it has to do with our personalities. And certain types of people are more likely to push through a book
00:01:16
Speaker
than others and it's that type A personality we probably aren't very surprised that might be more likely to just stick with it and get it done because they have that achievement or um you know not wanting to have negative consequences. so that they'll have that follow through. And conversely, I thought this was interesting. A Type B personality may never even start a book they know they won't finish. like ah I would never get through that. I'm not even going to pick it up. So different from me, I have to say.
Social Pressure to Finish Books
00:01:48
Speaker
wow um But the more important motivator of finishing a book, he says, is social pressure, which is why book clubs are so good at getting people to get through clear to the epilogue. Interesting.
Social Media and Reading Classics
00:02:04
Speaker
Well, I will admit there are some books that I have read because, you know, you see a lot of um coverage of them on social media. And so, you know, i I'll pick it up because I feel like, oh, everybody is reading this. And I have been, I typically do finish the books, but I have not enjoyed them as much as others seem to have.
00:02:32
Speaker
Yeah, there's that ah fear of missing out like, Oh, everyone loves this. So I should, I should do that too. And ah sometimes I get that feeling with classics as well. Like, Oh, I should read that. And I should like that because it's a quote unquote classic. So then if you get into it and you're not digging it, then it's really hard to be a quitter and, um, and give up halfway through.
Forgiving Authors and Book Completion
00:03:03
Speaker
Well, and and sometimes I've found with reading some of the the classics is the writing style is very different than what we see in books that are published now um with either you know a lot more description or a much slower pace and I can so yeah you know i can see why someone um wouldn't finish a classic or would feel obliged to finish one and kind of really slog through because they're just some of them can be very
00:03:42
Speaker
Yeah, very challenging to read. Mm hmm. I definitely have that feeling. And I mean, I was a lit major, so I was given lots of lists of books that are hard to read. And you you do get a different brain set if you're doing a
Timing, Personal Taste, and Book Enjoyment
00:03:59
Speaker
lot of it. I think that you can ah sort of train yourself to get into those. But um I think after having done that, I got better about what heck now I don't have a teacher telling me what to read so if I'm not enjoying this then I'm not going to continue reading it.
00:04:20
Speaker
And it also doesn't mean that it's a bad story or a bad book because um it might be someone else's favorite,
Struggles and Enjoyment of 'Thursday Murder Club'
00:04:30
Speaker
right? There's taste, there's also timing. Like I know sometimes I've picked up a book and like, oh, I'm just not into this at all. And then for whatever reason, I'll go back to it and really like it. Yeah, I've had a similar experience where um I started reading a book and was like, you know what, this is not my jam. um And then and then returned to it and and ended up finishing it. But I find if there's a book that I'm reading and, you know, maybe it's my attention span is really short.
00:05:06
Speaker
But if I'm not into it and I'm at you know page 50 or page 100, that's kind of where I'll be like, well, is it worth me finishing this? I think since writing my own books, I try to be a little bit more forgiving. of of authors and and willing to, um okay, I've reached page 50, I'm still not quite into it. I'll i'll give it another 50 pages. And that's typically how I end up finishing the book, right? Okay, I'll just give it, now I've only got 50 pages left, I might as well finish it.
Deciding to Finish or Avoid Authors
00:05:42
Speaker
I think that's a good point that we have to give it enough of a chance because sometimes you start a book and
00:05:51
Speaker
A good example, surprisingly enough, was Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club. I had for some reason, maybe it was what I had just read previously or maybe what I was working on personally, I had a hard time getting into the fact that he was it was it's third person multiple POV. And for whatever reason, I couldn't get into these characters' heads. But then once I did, it was smooth sailing. And it's one of my favorite um ah series now. But it was for whether it was that day or that experience, I had a hard time just getting into it. So you're right. You have to give it a chance. You can't just be like three pages and like, I'm out.
00:06:35
Speaker
Yeah, that's, I mean, three pages, I don't think is is is enough. um You might fall in love with a book within the first three pages, but I don't want to fall out of love with one that early. um Often, if there's a book that I've been disappointed by, I'll finish it, but then I won't read anything else by that author. Um, or I might read a second, like the second in the series kind of give the first. Okay. It's the first in the series has to be a lot of, you know, setting the stage or whatever. Um, and then I'll, I'll read the second one. And if I've read the second one and and that hasn't swayed me, then that's probably, it's probably not an author I'm going to read anymore of.
00:07:20
Speaker
Yeah, I would agree
Reddit Insights on Reading Struggles
00:07:22
Speaker
with that. I i ah was kind of doing a little research for this and I, I found a Reddit forum, um, with comments from other readers about why they feel torn, whether or not they're going to finish a book or not. And, uh, I thought these were really great and I could relate to them. They worry that it's just about to get good. So if they quit, it's like, well, what if I'm going to turn the page and it gets to the good part? Um, and we said this, it's a classic, so I'm supposed to read it or like it. I want to know the ending, but I'm stuck in the middle. And I felt that way a lot. Like, well, I want to know who the, who the murderer is, but this muddy middle is kind of sticking me down. Um, and this one I've spent the money on it. You know, you go and you spend, you might drop 20 bucks, right? On a traditionally published book. And it's like, well, heck now I'm in it because I've, I've, I've spent the money.
00:08:19
Speaker
Yeah, I think I i agree with with all of those. I think I've probably felt all of those
Audiobooks as an Aid
00:08:24
Speaker
feelings. um I have found some success where I've started, say, reading the eBook and really not been able to get into it, and then found an audio version you know at the library and that just makes a world of difference. And I don't know you know i don't know what it is if it's just having the voices
00:08:52
Speaker
in my ears rather than me trying to to keep the voices straight you know ah from the page or or what. But ah there have been several books that I was a little bit, okay, I don't know how how I'm gonna like this, but once I listened to the audio version, I was hooked, yeah. Absolutely. I have found the exact thing and I love audio books for that. Um, I've also found I had a particular book that I was, it was just simply long. It wasn't that I wasn't enjoying it, but it was long. And, um, I found that I had the physical version and I also had the audio version. And so that helped me get through it more quickly because you know, when I had a few minutes in the evening to sit down and read
00:09:46
Speaker
you know some pages that was great but then when i was driving around town doing my errands or whatnot then i could play it in the car um and it was tricky for me because those weren't synced but it still wasn't too bad you could like okay i'm on chapter thirty you know and and find my place in the audiobook But I know that, for instance, if you're somebody who reads um and listens with the Amazon world, those two things sync. And so you could have your e-book and your audio book in the same place at all times. I think that could really help get through one that you really want to finish, but you're just having difficulty getting the either the time or the, ah like you say, like the the vibe of it that it helps with the voices.
Misleading Marketing and Reading Challenges
00:10:29
Speaker
That's a really great suggestion, Brooke. When I think about like why is it that I haven't liked a book or I've struggled to finish a book, I think it's often because, so like I said in the beginning, it it hasn't lived up to its hype or it's been billed as being this really great mystery and then it's actually not. right there that There were a couple of books I think I read in the fall of last year. I think there was three of them in a row that I read that were billed as being, I get the Christi-like mysteries. um And there was a mystery a mystery element in all of those books, but it wasn't the driver of the story.
00:11:13
Speaker
And so I really was like, our publishers just trying to capture the moment that mystery is having and trying to squeeze these books into the mystery space. And they're probably disappointing everyone, right? Because if I'm looking for a mystery book and there's, you know, 10% of the book is mystery and 90% of it is um like women's fiction or or um romance, romance then I'm not going to be satisfied with that. And someone who really is looking for something in in one of those genres is probably not going to pick it up if it's billed as a mystery. hu Yeah, I would agree. You're right. Mystery is having a moment. And so I do think that some of these book blurbs or book book descriptions are leaning heavily on mystery. And let's face it, every single
00:12:11
Speaker
piece of fiction has an element of mystery because that's it's pushing us through. An element of mystery, meaning what's going what could possibly happen next? What's going to happen in that relationship? What did that note mean? But that is not a murder mystery. no And those books are frustrating when they have you know the next Agatha Christie in the tagline and In fact, that's not at all what type of book it is. I would agree, Sarah. And I think in those circumstances, that's certainly an example of I'm not going to pick up another book by this author because, you know, it's fool me once.
00:12:52
Speaker
hu And sadly, those decisions were probably made by the publisher, right? And not the author at all.
Avoiding Dark Themes in Books
00:12:59
Speaker
Yeah. And that's why I feel a bit bad for those authors, right? I know how hard they would have worked on on their stories. And then if they're not being positioned in the right way, they're never going to find their audience because there are probably people who really would have enjoyed those books. Like I said, if if the my the book is billed as a mystery and that's not your thing, you're not going to pick that up. Right. So mis-positioning is definitely a big reason why we find that we don't finish a book. Um, some of our, my other reasons are oddly enough quite complicated. Like sometimes there's not enough mystery tropes for me and sometimes it's too trophy.
00:13:46
Speaker
Right? um A lot of times for me, it comes down to like gore and violence because I don't need that in my mysteries. ah Yes, a little bit of spooky and scary is fine, but I actually had a did not finish this week. um And I'll go ahead and drop the name because I can do this series absolutely no harm. I could not finish The Alienist. um And this is an older book. I think it was actually came out in the mid 90s. But there's now ah television adaptations and and huge success. And and it was it simply came down to the fact that
00:14:25
Speaker
It was too dark for me, especially surrounding kids. And I also think it could be one of those we mentioned that at another season of my life, I may have been okay with it, but um you know or or the timing, um because it was a great story and I love the characters and the concepts were great, but I just can't do darkness in her hurting kids. Yeah, i i I think
Coincidental Plot Lines in Mysteries
00:14:53
Speaker
that's right, Brooke. like There's just some things that I don't i don't need to read about. um And yeah, if if a book is particularly violent, I'm either going to just skim through those scenes so that I can get to the um you know the next scene that isn't so violent. But if kind of that is pervasive throughout the whole book, then I'm probably not going to finish that.
00:15:21
Speaker
And probably the other thing that really will make me put a book down is if everything is too coincidental. Like if it's just too contrived and like, oh, that's convenient. Like, yes, I realize I'm saying that as someone who writes cozy mystery and we do get some coincidences in cozy mystery. Bakers tend to find dead bodies all the time. But I think you know what I mean. Like the storyline is just too convenient and too um coincidental that that sleuth just happens upon the solution. that but That usually bothers me. Yeah. I mean, there's a difference between suspending your disbelief and abandoning your disbelief.
Compelling Characters and Pacing
00:16:05
Speaker
Thank you.
00:16:07
Speaker
When I flip this around and I think about, okay, why do I continue reading a book, right? It's because the characters are compelling or because they the pacing is like you just, you can't put it down, right? You have to know what's going to happen next. Um, and when you find a book like that, that you, like, you just have to, I don't know, put your life on hold so that you can finish reading this, like that that's such a wonderful experience. And obviously we're not going to get that with every book that we read, but, um,
00:16:47
Speaker
Yeah, i want I want to hold on to those to those books.
Excitement and Joy in Reading
00:16:51
Speaker
And, you know, those are the ones that you recommend to people and kind of like I can't wait for you to read this because it was just so good. Yeah, the book that you think about all day that you know, it's waiting for you at home when you're, when your workday is done, you get that little jolt of excitement because your books, they're waiting for you. Yeah. ah Those are the special ones. And, um, and you're right. You don't get that every time, but man, when you find one, you just want to shout it from the rooftops. Absolutely. Yeah.
00:17:23
Speaker
So what do we do with those books that we weren't able to finish? um Molly Templeton is ah is an author. She wrote an article called, you really don't have to finish every book you start. And she suggests making a did not finish list of books right alongside the list of books you read each year.
'Did Not Finish' Lists and Gifting Books
00:17:43
Speaker
Um, and I really like this because they still count like for those other type A's out there like me who don't want to be a quitter. Um, and it's a record of things you might want to come back to when the time is right. Or as we say, try a different format. Um, and then just play around with it and see if there's another time in your life when you want to bring that back.
00:18:04
Speaker
But I liked that suggestion a lot. And then for those who feel badly about purchasing a book and then ah just having it sit on your shelf, consider gifting it to a friend or putting it in a little lending library around town. Someone else will enjoy it. Those are fantastic ideas, Brooke. And i I do like the idea of keeping track of the books that we just don't get into because, as you say, there may become a time when you want to revisit that or, you know, you might want to use that and just say, oh this particular sub-genre just really doesn't work for me. So I'm going to make sure that my next book is in one of those.
00:18:48
Speaker
Yeah, you're curating your tastes. And again, it's not a, um, criticism on the author or the sub genre or the book because someone else, it could be their favorite, but for you personally, you're, you're finding out what's important to you and your precious reading time. Great. Well, thanks for the suggestions, Brooke. Absolutely. This was so fun, Sarah. Yeah, I think this was um you it was a bit of a different conversation than we than we typically have, but um I think a good one to have. And thank you all for joining us today on Clued in Mystery. I'm Brooke. And I'm Sarah. And we both love mystery.
00:19:31
Speaker
Clued In Mystery is produced by Brooke Peterson and Sarah M. Stephen. Music is by Shane Ivers at Silvermansound dot.com. Visit us online at CluedInMystery.com or social media at CluedInMystery. If you liked what you heard, please consider subscribing, leaving a review, or telling your friends.